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Breakfast

08/10/2011

I promised no more squash recipies, and I’m not going to lie: it was a hard promise to keep. There were two chocolate zucchini cakes and a carrot zucchini bread, all yummy good and full of squash. Luckily, we had some bananas that freakishly went strait from green to brown, on a rainy day no less.

As we are nearing the end of swim suit season (whoo-hoo!), and are enjoying a surprisingly cool August here in New England (sorry Texas), it seems the time to really indulge is here. So, why make banana bread when you can make chocolate chip peanut butter banana bread? I die. So good. Honestly, I miss it dearly. We keep rifling though the pantry and fridge in hopes of finding something as yummy delicious. All the other food in the house has left us forlorn.

I did make it without nuts, which was a mistake. The logical choice would have been peanuts, but we only had walnuts. In retrospect, walnuts would have rocked. Because there were not nuts, this bread was much better after it had cooled in the fridge, and the chocolate chips were firm enough again to give it some texture. If you do add nuts, feel free to eat it when it is still warm and gooey from the oven.

In a large bowl, sift together the wheat flour, flour, baking soda, cinnamon and allspice. Wisk in the wheat germ (or ground flaxseed meal) and salt. In a small bowl mix together the mashed bananas, yogurt, peanut butter, oil, eggs and sugars.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and fold until almost all the flour has been incorporated. Add the chocolate chips (and nuts if you are using them), and fold until everything comes together nicely.

Pour batter into your prepared loaf pan, spread it evenly, and sprinkle about a handful of chcolate chips on top. Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, until golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean. Let cool and serve.

07/18/2011

Okay, this is the last squash recipe for a while. Promise. Remember my zucchini bread massive failure that resulted in my shunning the idea entirely, and making a summer squash galette instead? Well, I got back on that horse.

Back in the heyday of grunge rock, when coffee shops were a new thing and not part of your daily staple, when Whole Foods was becoming a Texas chain, long before it was a house hold name, they had the most insanely good bakery imaginable. Really. It is still good today, but it was far beyond good then. Oh, I melt just remembering. Their zucchini bread was our family’s favorite ever ever.

This recipe is from Whole Foods. While I don’t think it is the zucchini bread I remember (my mom and me are pretty sure molasses was involved), it is so yummy we quickly ate the whole thing, and were fighting over the last bite. It is moist yet hardy, flavorful, sweet and nutty, just the right amount of everything good that will having you waxing nostalgic even if you don't remember it the way I do. I can’t wait to make it again, but will have to put it off until we have company for the sake of my waistline.

1/3 cup chopped walnuts (I used pistachios, which were super yummy. Pecans would be lovely as well.)

Preheat oven to 325º F., and grease an 8 inch loaf pan and line it with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg. Whisk in the salt, and set aside.

In a small bowl, stir together the egg, oil, applesauce, yogurt, sugar and vanilla extract until smooth. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and fold until almost incorporated. Add in the zucchini and nuts, and fold until everything comes together nicely.

Pour batter into your prepared pan. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, rotating your pan halfway through baking, until the bread is golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean. Allow bread to cool for 30 minutes in the pan before serving.

06/29/2011

We have two very little girls, who somehow consume disturbingly massive amounts of food. So this year we made the plunge, and signed up for a CSA.

Last week, we brought home, along with a lovely variety of greens and herbs, FOUR pounds of squash. I had no idea how we could possibly eat that much squash, especially when our girls are not so keen on veggies. At all.

Zucchini and carrot cupcakes! Good bye squash, hello serving of veggies doused in cream cheese frosting, a.k.a. serving of dairy. Harper was leery in the beginning, but came around in spades. Now four pounds of squash seems measly.

This recipe is from John Barricelli’s The Sono Baking Company Cookbook, but the original is a carrot, zucchini and cranberry muffin, with the option for cream cheese frosting. In the fall, I might go for the cranberries, but for now, they were not missed. I dialed back the sugar from the original, figuring without the tartness of the cranberries it would not need so much. They were plenty sweet enough. I also subbed out half of the flour for whole wheat pastry flour, and added a pinch or cardamom just for fun. They were super moist and flavorful, definitely a welcome summer treat.

Preheat oven to 375º F, and line a 12 cup muffin pan with cupcake liners.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and cardamom. Whisk in the salt, and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, eggs, carrot, zucchini and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients, and fold them in until everything is moist and well incorporated.

Using a 2 inch ice cream scoop, or ¼ cup, fill the muffin cups. Bake until golden brown, and a cake tester comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes. Let cupcakes cool completely while you make the frosting. Makes about 13 cupcakes.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

zest of 1 orange

In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add the confectioners’ sugar in three additions, stopping to scrape down the bowl. Mix until smooth, and beat in the orange zest. Spread on top of cooled cupcakes, and enjoy!

05/03/2011

We had a little scone bake off in our house for the royal wedding, and the winner was…

HONEY SCONES!

They are so yummy; I think I’ll make them for Mother’s Day, too. I love making scones before I go to bed, popping them in the fridge, and baking them off first thing in the morning. It is an easy and fancy start to any day.

While out grocery shopping, our store did not have any clotted cream. I went with crème fresh instead, and it was delicious.

This scone is not very sweet. It is earthy and hardy while still light with a crumbly melt in your mouth texture. It definitely calls for being served with honey and cream, which make it dreamy good.

1 ¼ tablespoons sugar in the raw or turbinado sugar, and a little more for sprinkling

½ teaspoon salt

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cubed

¼ cup honey, preferably a mild honey like clover

¼ cup buttermilk

1 egg, beaten

Combine honey and buttermilk, and heat gently in the microwave or in a double boiler until the honey dissolves. (This took 10 seconds in my microwave.) Refrigerate to cool.

Preheat oven to 400º F, and line baking a baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat.

In a large bowl, sift together the flours and baking powder. Wisk in the wheat germ, sugar and salt. With a pastry blender or two knives, cut the butter into the flour until the butter is no larger than a pea. Your mixture should look a bit like a course cornmeal. Make well in the middle of the bowl, and pour in the buttermilk mixture. With a fork, toss together the wet and dry ingredients until everything is well moistened.

Pour dough out onto the counter top, and knead no more than 12 times. Pat the dough into a circle, about 1 ¼ inches thick. With a 2 inch biscuit or cookie cutter, cut the dough into rounds. Place them on your cookie sheet so they almost touch, and brush with the beaten egg. Sprinkle with sugar in the raw.

Bake until golden, 18 to 23 minutes. They should stick together slightly. Once they have cooled a little, pull apart and serve with honey and clotted cream or crème fresh.